Substance Abuse Prevention in Managed Care: 

A Missing Ingredient for Better Health 

By Jody K. Vilschick


Closing the Gap, Substance Abuse Prevention:What’s Working to Keep Our Youth Drug Free?


June/July 2001


Where is substance abuse prevention in managed care? Although managed care promotes preventive health care services (e.g., immunizations, mammograms, and other 

screenings), prevention efforts to curtail substance abuse are often a 

missing ingredient. 

“We shouldn’t think of ‘managed care’ versus ‘substance abuse 

prevention’ programs,” says Sheri Rucker, public health analyst for the 

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s Office of Managed Care 

(OMC), a part of HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 

Administration. “We should think of integrating prevention strategies 

into the managed care system. No one is disputing that managed care 

‘treats’ substance abuse, but efforts to stop drug abuse before it starts 

is often viewed as a foreign concept in these organizations,” Rucker 

added. 

OMC’s training program, Preventive Interventions: Roles in a 

Changing Health Care System, brings together the best of today’s scientific knowledge about what works in prevention. “This program 

brings health care professionals, including representatives from the 

managed care industry, educators, prevention professionals, and even 

consumers to the table to establish a dialog about what works, and 

how they can work together to get results,” says Rucker. 

OMC’s 13 training modules demonstrate the collaboration of 

managed care with substance abuse prevention organizations. Each 

module requires the use of three trainers, and always includes at least 

one expert in substance abuse prevention and one expert in managed 

care. 

The following are just a sample of the training modules now 

available: 

•	 Access to Health Care Systems for Vulnerable Populations demonstrates how effective, culturally sensitive interventions for substance abuse and mental health problems in managed care organizations should be implemented with vulnerable populations. 

•	 Marketing Strategies to Address Substance Abuse and Mental 

Health Problems in Managed Care Organizations provides a 

basic understanding of marketing, especially to applying these 

concepts to increase substance abuse services in managed care 

organizations. 

•	 Community Assessment Tool: An Analysis of “Readiness” to 

Work with Managed Care Organizations helps participants develop a realistic plan to partner with managed care organizations 

to provide culturally sensitive prevention services. 

•	 Educating and Empowering Consumers to Access Managed 

Care Systems provides a review of what consumer education 

entails. 

•	 Showcase of Substance Abuse Prevention in Managed Care 

highlights substance abuse prevention programs that are promising collaborations between community-based and managed care 

organizations. 

How can minority communities benefit from these training modules? Simply stated—empowerment. For example, the training on 

consumer education is important because “In it, we emphasize the 

role consumers have in demanding substance abuse preventive services as part of a wellness menu,” said Simmie Marie Davis, MSW, 

executive director for the Hitchcock Center for Women, a full-service 

chemical dependency treatment center for women ages 18 and older, 

and their children up to age 3, in Cleveland, OH. 

Davis has seen how important consumer education can be in her 

work for the Hitchcock Center. “People of color are often the last to 

receive intervention on all of the major diseases and risk factors. By the 

time they enter a doctor’s office, the disease has likely progressed. 

Arming minority communities with this valuable information will 

help develop policy—both on the local and state levels—to advocate 

for substance abuse education,” she added. 

OMC plans to increase the training’s accessibility to Hispanic 

minorities by translating them into Spanish. “We’re excited about 

getting these training modules translated,” Rucker says. Two modules 

are already being focus group tested to ensure that the translation is 

accurate and culturally sensitive. “Our goal is to have the rest of the 

modules translated by the end of this year,” she says. 

For more information, contact Sheri Rucker, M.S.W., CSAP/OMC, 

(301) 594-0788; fax (301) 443-1548; e-mail strucker@samhsa.gov.

Office of Minority Health Resource Center	 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services